Lone Wolf
by heyimthedoctor
Summary: Hey! So this is a story that I wrote basically substituting Annabeth for a different character. Now, don't get me wrong. I love Annabeth and ship Percabeth like you wouldn't believe, but for this story, she's just not in it. Also, I know some of the parts are from the book, but I don't pretend to own them. If this upsets you, I'm sorry. Let me know what you think! -Miya
1. Chapter 1

The moon shone down on a small town, casting a silvery glow on everything. A young girl darted in and out of the trees, buildings, and bushes. She stopped in the middle of a country dirt road, and bent down almost to examine it. She picked up a piece of gravel and sniffed it. Her head shot up, smelling the air. She closed her eyes for a few moments. Nothing. Only the wind and the rustle of animals in the bushes every so often. Then, there it was. The scent, and a low, heavy breathing behind her. She straightened up, slowly turning her head.

"Fancy meeting you here, old friend," she said, quietly. Her silver eyes shone in the moonlight, giving her a shadowy glow. "Come to get your butt whipped, again?" The figure made a noise from the back of his throat, and stepped out from the shadows. She could see him properly now. A tall beast, with two gigantic horns upon his head. He was covered with thick dark fur, and had a snout extending from the front of his face with a broken gold ring strung through it. The Minotaur.

The half-man half-bull thing glanced at her and, recognizing her scent, gave out a loud battle roar. This being had caused him trouble before. She had hunted him down over hundreds of miles when nobody had been able to find him in decades. This "little girl" was almost as strong as anything he'd ever gone up against. She was the reason for his death, oh those many years ago. Now, he had come back for his revenge. Sure, he would lose valuable time chasing the demigod, but at the time, this seemed more important.

She smiled up at him, a smile that said "It was nice knowing you. Prepare to be demolished" more than your average nice-to-see-you-again smile. He backed away, then ran full speed ahead at the girl. She jumped away from him and ran under his legs with the quickness of a fox. He spun around furiously and swung his fists all over the place. She pulled a silver arrow out of the quiver on her back and took aim at the beast's head. Just as she was about to fire, the Minotaur smashed his hand down, forcing her to roll away. She was too slow getting back on her feet, and the Minotaur smacked her into the woods. The girl landed hard on a stump, the air escaping from her lungs. Just then, a sleek black car rushed past. The beast remembered what he had been sent to do and chased after it. But she had felt it. The presence of her kind, another demigod. In that car. As she stood up, leaning heavily on the side of a tree, she could only think one thing. Oh no. She would never back there in time. After finally being able to breath properly again, the mysterious girl ran off, into the darkness, back to where she knew with absolute certainty that the car was headed. It was only a matter of time before the beast caught up with them.

I sat in the back seat of my step-fathers sleek black Camaro, being driven by my mother. Next to me was my best friend, only with goat legs and hooves. I was as shocked as anyone would be when you've been ripped out of your home, discover your best friend was some kind of animal-human, and you were now being chased by a 12 foot tall monster. Yeah. All of a sudden, the car jerked to a stop, almost as if something had grabbed it from behind.

"Percy," my mother warned. "Don't move." I stayed very still and very quiet, waiting for something, anything, to happen. Grover shuddered next to me, blood trickling down his face.

"Grover!" I gasped. "Food," Grover said. My mom looked around frantically. Finally, she spotted what she had been looking for. A tall pine tree at the top of a hill overlooking a strawberry farm.

"Percy," she whispered. "You have to run. You have to take Grover and run for that tall pine tree over there. Go down to a big farm house and knock on the door screaming for help. Go now!"

I looked at her, shocked. "No! I'm not leaving you here!" I replied. She shook her head.

"I'll distract him. You have to run." I was about to protest, when there was a smaller thump on the top of the car, as if something else had just jumped into the scene, and the pressure on the car released. The Minotaur roared and smacked at his back. Whatever it was was leading him away from them. Judging by sound, the thing had pushed the beast away and was now running back.

"Food!" The goat boy groaned. "Shut up!" I whispered. Suddenly, a very pretty girl with curly chocolate brown hair and bright silver eyes appeared at the window. She looked at them, then noticing Grover, opened the car door.

"Grover!" she said, a worried look on her face. Grover seemed to brighten when he saw her, but only replied with,"Food." The girl looked up at them. "Well, what are you waiting for? You need to-" A huge hand came out of nowhere and clamped down on her. She reached for my hand, but was yanked away, screaming.

I leaped out of the car, trying to find someway to help. "No!" she yelled. "Run!" For some reason, the beast didn't kill her right away. That was its fatal mistake. She kicked the monster in the eye, causing him to drop her to the ground. She, amazingly, landed on her feet and immediately took off running. I stood there, bewildered. "C'mon, go!" she screamed at me. It didn't take long for the Minotaur to realize what had happened. He roared angrily and started to run after us. "Run, Percy! Take your mother and Grover and run!" she shouted at me, pulling a silver arrow out and aiming at the creature's head. I didn't think to ask how she knew my name. She gave me a look of goodbye and I ran.

I caught up to Grover and my mother and we ran almost all the way to the tree. But I glanced back. And that ruined it. The girl who had saved my life was lying on the ground, a couple of feet from the raging Minotaur who had every intention of crushing her, and she wasn't moving. I couldn't just stand there and let it happen. I charged, grabbing the sword she had dropped. I heard my mom call my name frantically, but I just couldn't let the girl die. I didn't know how I did it but, the next thing I knew, The Minotaur was rolling on the ground a few yards, clutching his stomach. I rushed to the girl's side. She was badly injured. It looked as if she had been blow from a cannon straight into a 20 foot tall tree and fallen from it. She had scrapes all over her body and was breathing heavily as if it was so very difficult.

"Help me up," she croaked. Clearly, she was in no state to be moving around. I started to protest, but she was already sitting up. The Minotaur stirred. "We have to hurry," she said. I helped her stumble sideways a bit, until she told me to stop and back away. I couldn't see anything special about this particular patch of grass. There was nothing there except for a bush that glowed in the moonlight. The Minotaur groaned, roared, then stumbled to his feet. Her eyes grew wide. "Buy me some time," she told me.

"What? How?"

"I don't know figure something out. I'll only be a moment." Already her skin began to glow faintly as she stood there in the patch of moonlight. The Minotaur stuck his big ugly snout to the ground and sniffed. He roared/screamed with frustration, and turned his wild dark eyes towards us. I stood there, motionless, unsure of what to do. Grover and my mother were the only ones that were watching when a blast of light erupted from the patch of now dead grass. The Minotaur was almost upon me. I raised the sword above my head threateningly. The beast charged me like a freight train, steam and all. I yelped and jumped out of the way. A huge mass of muscle and fur turned around and barreled back towards me. It never got that far. Something slammed into it at high speeds, knocking it over into the dirt. The girl leaped up and tore off, taking her sword from me as she went. We ran all the way to where my mother was taking care of Grover. She looked at us with wide eyes.

"C'mon! C'mon we need to go!" the girl yelled. They reacted immediately. The Minotaur was gaining on us. "Run!" All of a sudden, my mother was yanked out of the air.

"Mom! No!" I yelled. The girl quickly pulled out an arrow and strung it into her bow, but she couldn't shoot. "Well, what are you waiting for?" I screamed.

"I can't shoot! I might hit her!" she screamed back.

"Just shoot already! Shoot!"

"I hope she's mortal," the girl replied, and wincing, she let go. The silver arrow nailed its target. It passed right through my mother and pierced the Minotaur in the arm. He roared angrily, and... squeezed the woman into dust. Squeezed into nothingness. Just like that.

I collapsed onto my knees, staring up into the monster's rage. But not for long. I jumped up and charged the Minotaur, taking with me a bronze sword that moments earlier had been a ballpoint pen. The beast ran at me. I swung, the Minotaur screamed, and a white horn landed with a thump a few feet away. And that was it. The monster was gone. The girl stood there, eyes wide at what she had just done. I was breathing hard, and shaking. I fell to the ground, out of breath. It was only then that I thought about, after all this, I didn't know the pretty girl's name. And then the world went black.

So, this was the first chapter. Let me know what you guys think. Hope you like it. Bye!


	2. Chapter 2

The sun peeked over the big hill of the strawberry farm. Young children ran through the trees. A large farm house stood at the bottom of the hill, people moving around inside. I slumped in a plush red chair where a girl was feeding me something yellow and gooey. My green eyes fluttered open, staring into her beautiful silver ones. They looked somewhat familiar to me.

The girl looked concerned. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

I groaned. "Like I was just thrown up." She grinned down at me, then got up and went over to a sink on the other side of the room. I looked around at my surroundings. An old grandfather clock chimed 10:00 on the wall. A small kitchen with a sink, a few counters, and a refrigerator. A hallway leading off to what I figured was bedrooms. I thought about last night. Maybe I'd imagined it all. My mother and I were on our way to Montauk and we'd stopped at this little motel because I wasn't feeling well. Yeah, that was it.

"I'm so sorry about your mom, Percy," the girl finally said. Uughh. What a way to ruin happy thoughts. I swallowed hard and fell back onto the pillows.

"You know, I never got your name," I mumbled. She looked relieved at the change of subject.

"Oh sorry. I'm-" she stopped, mid-sentence, grabbed a spoonful of pudding and shoved it in my mouth just as there was a knock from the front door. "Go back to sleep," she whispered, staring deep into my eyes. Strangely, I felt myself slip away into the darkness. I tried to hold on but I fell asleep.

When I woke up, the girl was gone, and Grover was now sitting on a wooden stool, nervously wringing his hands. Just regular old Grover, not goat-boy Grover. He wore jeans, converse, and an orange t-shirt that said Camp Half-Blood. "Percy!" he yelled, excitedly. There was worry in his voice, like he hadn't slept for a week. I groaned and sat up. Someone behind me placed a tall glass on the side table, but when I turned to thank them, there was nobody there.

I stared at the drink. It was like apple juice, but it didn't smell like it. I grasped it in my hands and took a gulp. It was certainly not what I expected. Chocolate-chip cookies. But not any cookies. Blue chocolate-chip cookies, the kind my mom used to make to cheer me up. They tasted warm and gooey, straight out of the oven. I drank it all, then gazed down at the glass. I was sure I'd just had a warm drink but the ice hadn't even melted.

"What did it taste like?" Grover asked. I suddenly felt guilty.

"Oh, sorry. I should've let you have some," I said. Grover's eyes widened.

"Oh, no no. That's ok. Just wondering."

"Like my mom's chocolate-chip cookies." Grover looked pained.

"Percy, I'm really sorry about your mom."

"Look, I don't want to talk about it, ok?" He nodded.

"But last night, I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this. It's the least I can do, I mean, you saved my life," Grover said, placing a shoebox on my lap. I thought about the girl and that if it wasn't for her, I would've been dinner. Inside the box was a horn, all white with a blood-splattered tip. The base was jagged and sharp, like it had been broken off. The Minotaur horn. I pushed it away, I didn't want to see it.

Grover sniffled,"I'm the worst satyr in the world. I couldn't even complete a simple job like this." He stomped his foot, hard against the floor, his converse high-top falling off, revealing a hoof. "Oh Styx!" Thunder rumbled across the sky. So it was true. All of it. Grover really was a satyr, I really had fought the Minotaur last night, and my mother really had been squeezed into dust. I fell back against the chair, too shocked to speak. Grover wrestled with his fake foot. When he had finally shoved it back on, he handed me the shoe box and said, "C'mon Percy. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."

As we came out the front door of the house, I caught my breath. We must've been on the north side of the Long Island Sound, because the valley marched all the way to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with what looked like ancient Greek architecture- an open air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena- except that they all looked brand new. In a nearby sand pit, a dozen high-school age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange t-shirts like Grover's, were chasing each other around a small cluster of cabins. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of those horses had wings.

Down at the other end of the porch, two men sat at a table facing each other. A girl that looked strangely familiar leaned up against the porch railing reading a book the size of my head, a large white wolf curled up at her feet. As we approached, the wolf jumped up and padded over to us. I thought it was going to attack us, but it just licked Grover's hand like they were old friends. Grover smiled down at it.

The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it looked almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels, what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's right. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park. He wore a tiger-patterned Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got a feeling this guy would've out gambled even my step-father.

"That's Mr. D. He's the camp director. Be polite," Grover murmured to me. I nodded.

"Who's that?" I asked, nodding to the girl. He glanced at me, then seeing my expression, chuckled.

"That's Alex. She's just a camper, well not exactly, but we'll get into that later. She's been here longer than just about anybody. Dude," he laughed. "She's way out of your league." Was that caution in his voice? "And you already know Chiron."

I turned to the third person at the table. The first thing I noticed was that he was sitting in a wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, and the scraggly beard. "Mr. Brunner!" I cried. My old Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. He had that mischievous glint in his eyes they got sometimes in class when he gave a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.

"Oh, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."

"Good. Because I'm not playing," Alex said, without looking up from her book.

"Oh come now, Alexia. It's not that hard," Mr. Brunner told her. She glanced up at him.

"So? I always lose."

"Alex, I don't think you of all people can lose at pinochle," Grover pointed out. She sighed.

"Not helping, Grover."

"Sorry." I looked back and forth between them. It was obvious they were friends. Mr. Brunner offered me the chair next to Mr. D. He looked at me with blood-shot eyes and heaved a great sigh.

"Oh I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now don't expect me to be happy to see you. That's her job." He jabbed a finger at Alex. She started to protest, but he shushed her. "Oh quiet, Clark." She pouted and sat down in the chair across from me. She pulled out her book again, and dove in.

"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from Mr. D. If there was one thing I learned from living with Gabe was when an adult had been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.

"Alex?" Mr. Brunner called to the girl. She looked up from her book and he introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Alex, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."

Alex shrugged,"Sure, Chiron."

She looked about my age if not younger, maybe a couple inches shorter, and a whole lot more athletic-looking. She had curly dark brown hair braided off to one side, and a pale complexion. But what really caught my attention was her eyes. Her eyes were strangely silver. They made you think her brain was moving a million miles an hour. They were gentle but said she could make monsters cry for there mommies. They were intelligent but mischievous. She studied me as if analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight. Which I got the feeling she probably was. That was where she was from. She was the girl who saved my life last night. I don't know what I expected her to say, but she just said,"You drool when you sleep." Then she tore off down the hill, that white wolf yapping at her heels like a lost puppy.

"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"

"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex- Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."

"Okay." Totally confused. I nervously glanced at the director. "And Mr. D... does that stand for something?" Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly.

"Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in,"I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."

"House call?" Mr. D sighed next to me. Chiron gave him a warning look.

"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most school, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I must say our dear friend Alex wasn't exactly pleased about that. She wanted to go herself. She's always itching to get out of here, but naturally it was too dangerous." By now, I was dying to know what he and Grover kept talking about. But I didn't say anything.

"You came to Yancy Academy just to teach me?" I asked. Chiron nodded.

"Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."

"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently. "are you playing or not?"

"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I don't know why he should be afraid of a pudgy man in a tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt. Just go on and add that to the list of things I'm confused about right now, why don't you?

"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.

"Um, no," I said.

"Um, no sir," he said. I said nothing. I was liking this guy less and less. He sighed angrily. "Well," he told me. "it is, along with gladiator fighting and PacMan, one of the greatest games ever invented by mankind. I would expect all civilized young men to know how to play pinochle."

"I'm sure he can learn," Chiron said.

"Please. What is this place? Who are you all? Who is that?" I gestured toward the direction Alex had left. "Why do I keep seeing her everywhere?" Grover stiffened. Chiron looked confused. Mr. D made a face like "I told you so."

"My dear boy,it is simply not possible that you could've seen Alex before now," Chiron said, but his expression contradicted himself.

"But, I did. I saw her. I talked to her." Grover made a motion, a hand cutting across his neck.

"I told you that you couldn't keep her here. I told you she wouldn't listen," Mr. D mumbled without looking up from his cards. Chiron glanced at him, a worried look on his face.

"Mr. D please-"

"She's restless, Chiron. If she wants to go out into the world and get herself killed, then so be it! We'd probably be better off if she did!"

"I did see her at-" I tried to put in but they were too busy arguing to notice.

"You know you don't mean that. It's too dangerous for her to even set foot outside the camp boundaries." Chiron said.

"And we're all in danger with her here!" There was a long pause where Chiron and Mr. D glared at each other. Grover cleared his throat.

"P-perhaps it was just s-someone who looked a lot like Alex," he said, in a tone that clearly said "Shut up, Percy." And that was the end of it. There was an awkward silence in which Mr. D shuffled his cards again and again, Chiron stared intently down at the table, and Grover trembled in his chair.

"Ok," I said, breaking the silence. "What about my other questions?" Chiron's expression softened.

"My dear boy, did your mother tell you nothing?" Just the thought of her made my eyes tear up.

"She said..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the ocean. "She said she was afraid to send me here. She said that my father wanted me to go here. She said she didn't know if she would see me again, that she wanted to keep me close to her."

"Typical," Mr. D snorted. "That's usually how they get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"

"What?" I asked. He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle. I did.

"Well, Percy. You know that your friend Grover is a satyr. You know that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat either," Chiron said. I wanted to point out that it wasn't all me, but thought better of it. "What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods, the forces you call Greek gods, are very much alive." I stared at the others around the table. I waited for somebody to yell, "Not!" but all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.

"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"

"Hmm? Oh, all right." Grover bit a huge chunk out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.

"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such thing as God." Chiron shook his head.

"Gods. Plural. As in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors. The immortal gods of Olympus. The gods we discussed in Latin class."

"Zues," I said. "Hera, Apollo. You mean them." Thunder rumbled on the cloudless day. Weird. Grover held his breath.

"Young man," said Mr. D," I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you." I was still confused, and Mr. D wasn't making it any better.

"But they're stories," I said. "They're myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science." But after all that had happened, I wasn't so sure.

"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson," I flinched when he said my real name which I never told anyone. "what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now? They will call it mumbo jumbo. Oh I love mortals. They have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so far. And have they, Chiron. Look at this boy and tell me." Chiron glanced at me and smiled.

I was liking this Mr. D guy less and less. Who did he think he was? And Grover wasn't helping, just slouching in his chair. But what really bothered me was how he said "mortals". As if, he was something else.

"Percy, immortal means immortal. Meaning they don't die. Meaning they're still around today," Chiron said. "They exist on and on. Never tiring. Never dying. Could you even begin to imagine what that must be like."

I couldn't. "You mean whether people believe in you or not," I said. Chiron nodded.

"A million years from now, people might think of you as a myth. A story to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers."

I glared at him. He was trying to make me mad, and I wasn't going to let him. "But I don't believe in gods." Mr. D snorted.

"Well, you'd better. Before one of them incinerates you." Grover chose this moment to speak up.

"S-sir, he's j-just lost his m-mother," he said, trembling so much, I thought his chair was going to tip over.

"A lucky thing too," Mr. D grumbled. "Could my life get any worse? Don't answer that!" he snapped as Grover opened his mouth to speak. He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine. My eyes widened.

"Mr. D," Chiron warned. "Your restrictions." Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.

"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!" More thunder. A wave of his hand and the wine turned into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed, and went back to his card game.

"Mr. D offended his father a long time ago. He fell in love with a wood nymph that had been declared off-limits." Mr. D nodded.

"Father loves to punish me. The first time, prohibition. Ten years! Horrid! The second time, she was really pretty, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. Absolutely unfair!"

I was still confused. "And..." I stammered,"your father is..."

"Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "Does this boy know nothing? My father is Zeus of course." I pictured all the D people from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs. It clicked.

"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."

Mr. D rolled his eyes. "No, I'm clearly Aphrodite. Why do you ask?"

"You're a god."

"Yes! That's what I'm saying!"

"A god. You."

He turned to look at me straight on and I noticed a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, an evil glint much like the look on Alex's face when we fought the Minotaur last night. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned into flippers and their faces elongated into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him too far, Mr. D would show me a completely different side to his personality.

"Would you like to test me, boy?" he said quietly.

"No, sir." He smiled, though it looked more like he was in pain, and went back to his card game.

"Good. Oh and I believe I win." Chiron smirked and shook his head. He set down a straight and tallied up his points.

"Not quite. The game goes to me." Mr. D looked like he was going to vaporize him right out of his wheelchair, but he just got up on his feet and Grover stood up too.

"I think I'm going to go take a nap before the sing-a-long tonight. But you," he jabbed a stubby finger in Grover's direction. "need to come with me."

"Y-yes sir." Mr. D turned to me.

"Cabin eleven, boy. And mind your manners." With that, he swept into the farmhouse, Grover trailing along behind.

"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron. He nodded, but he didn't seem sure.

"Oh, he's not all bad. He just really hates his job. Dionysus can't stand the thought of waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."

"You're telling me there's really a palace on Mount Olympus. A real one?" Chiron shook his head.

"Not exactly. There's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers. The palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."

"You mean they're here? The gods are in America?"

"Well, naturally. The gods move with the heart of the West."

"The what?"

"The West. Western civilization. Did you think it was just an abstract concept? Not at all. It's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. The idea started in Greece. Then it moved to Rome. Different names, but the same gods."

"Then they died."

"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved. People do not forget them. Every place they've been, they've left traces. Look at your United States. You symbol, the eagle of Zeus. The statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center. The Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. Try and find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed. America is now the heart of the flame. So Olympus is here. And we are here."

I let that sink in. It was too much. It couldn't all be true. "Who are you, Chiron? And who am I?" I asked. Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight in the wheelchair, as if he might get up from it, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.

"Who are you? That is the question." And then he did rise from his chair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of his wheelchair, I realized that the underwear wasn't that, but the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container. A box on wheels. It must've been magic because there's no way it could've held all of him. His legs came out, one by one, until the box was empty except for a couple of fake human legs attached.

I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair; a huge white stallion. But where it's neck should've been was the upper body of my Latin teacher.

"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."


	3. Chapter 3

For the next hour or so, we had a nice tour. He showed me the pavilion, the volleyball court, the lake. All amazing. Most of the campers were older than me. Some were younger, but not by much, maybe 8 or 9 years old. But everyone gave me strange glances, as if expecting me to do a flip or something. They kept looking at the Minotaur horn I now held in my hands. I had to keep it close. It seemed important.

I looked back at the farm house and realized for the first time just how big it was. It was at least 4 stories tall, blue with a white trim. Quite nice, actually. I thought I saw something move behind the curtains on the top floor, but when I turned back to get a better look, it was gone.

"Who lives up there?" I asked Chiron. He frowned, staring intently up at the top floor.

"No one. Just the attic," he replied, then turned and set off towards the strawberry fields. But I was sure I'd seen something. I decided not to let it bother me, and followed him.

When I caught up with him, Chiron picked a strawberry and handed it to me. At first, I wasn't sure whether to eat it or put it on display. It looked amazing. I eventually popped it in my mouth. It was delicious. Juicy, and sweet. Now if only it had been blue.

"The strawberries pay our expenses," Chiron said. "We send them to many restaurants and Mount Olympus of course. And they take almost no effort." I looked at him, confused. Again. "Mr. D has a way with fruit-bearing plants. Believe me, he would be much happier growing wine grapes, but he is forbidden. So we grow these instead."

I noticed a satyr a few yards away. He was playing on what looked like a set of pipes. A line of bugs marched out of the plants and filed away. I stared, wide-eyed. I wondered if Grover could do that as well.

I glanced back up the hill at the farm house. It looked even taller from there. Grover was inside, probably getting chewed out my Mr. GrumpyPants.

"How much trouble could Grover possibly get in?" I asked Chiron. "He was a great protector, really!"

Chiron sighed. He pulled off his jacket and draped it over the horse's back like a saddle. "Oh Percy. I don't know. Grover has big dreams, perhaps too big. But to achieve his goals, he must demonstrate courage by finding a camper and bringing them to camp. Alive," he said.

"But he did that! I'm here. Alive!"

"I know. But it is not my decision to make. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must deem this assignment successful and I'm afraid they might not. Grover lost you in New York. Your mother's, um, fate. And the whole ordeal with the Minotaur. Courage may not have been displayed on Grover's part."

"But that wasn't his fault!" Chiron shook his head sadly. I felt awful. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he wouldn't be in trouble. "But he'll get a second chance, won't he?" Chiron seemed to ponder that. For the second time that day, he looked up at the cabins. From here, I could see Alex chatting with a tall blonde guy outside one of them.

"I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance. After what happened five years ago, the council wasn't happy with giving him one. He's so small for his age..." He trailed off. Alex took a metal bucket from the guy, hugged him, and walked off. Boyfriend? Hmmm.

"How old is he?" I asked. "Grover, I mean."

"Twenty-eight."

My jaw dropped. "What! He's in sixth grade!"

"Satyrs mature only half as fast as humans. I'm afraid Grover has been the equivalent of a middle-school student for the past six years."

"That's terrible!"

He nodded. "Quite. But Grover is a late bloomer and not very good at woodland magic. Still," Chiron shrugged. "He is ever so persistent. Perhaps now, given the circumstances, he'll find a new dream."

"What happened the last time? It can't have been that bad," I said. "Could it?"

Again, Chiron gazed up at the cabins. "Perhaps we should move along."

But I wasn't ready to let the subject go. There was something he wasn't telling me, something connected to that girl. An idea began to form in my head. "So if all this your telling me is true, about the gods and Olympus and stuff, what about the dark stuff? What about the Underworld?"

Chiron stiffened, his expression hardened. "Percy," he said, his voice a little shaky. "There is a place where spirits go after death, yes. Now I don't want you bringing it up again, understood?" I nodded uneasily. And that was the end of it. "Come. Let's see the woods."

'Huge' would be an understatement to describe the forest. It was vast, taking up more than a quarter of the valley. The trees were tall and thick, kinda spooky looking.

"The woods are stocked," Chiron said. "But go armed, or you'll be sorry."

"Stocked? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Oh you'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Best your prepared. Do you have your own sword and shield?"

I stared at him, eyes wide. "My own-"

"I don't suppose so." He studied me. "I think I size five will do. I'll have Alex suit you up." What kind of a summer camp was this?

We visited the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables, the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena. Chiron said they held sword and spear fights. My head was spinning.

"Just cabin challenges," he explained. "Not deadly. Usually. Oh and there's the mess hall." He gestured towards a pavilion on one of the hills over-looking the sea. It had white Grecian columns and large stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

"What if it rains?" I asked. Chiron looked at me like I'd grown a second head. I felt my neck to make sure I hadn't. After all the weird things today, I wasn't taking any chances.

"We still have to eat don't we?" he replied.

Finally, we got around to the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. They were the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen. They each had a large brass number above the doors, but other than that, they were nothing alike. Number 9 had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number 4 looked like a greenhouse. Number 8 looked relatively normal, except it had a glowing silver aura that reminded me of someone I'd met. They all faced a commons area, dotted with flowers, Greek statues, fountains, and a couple of basketball hoops. In the middle of the field, there was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm day, a small fire sputtered in the pit. A girl about nine years old with little blonde pigtails was poking the coals with a stick.

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, looked like his and her mausoleums. They were big white marble boxes with heavy columns out front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest. It shimmered like a mirage, so that lightning bolts shot out from different angles. Cabin two seemed more graceful, and it's columns we're garlanded with pomegranate and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed. Chiron nodded. "Then, why do they look so empty?"

"Some of the cabins are. No one ever stays in one or two."

Ok. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. So then why would some of them be empty?

I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, number 3. It was low and long and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone, studded with pieces of seashell and coral. I peeked inside the open doorway. Chiron warned me not to go in, but that was lost once I saw inside. As soon as my head was through the doorway, I caught a whiff of a strong, salty smell, like the wind off the ocean. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. It felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron grasped my shoulder and told me it was time to go.

Most of the other cabins were crowded and over-flowing with campers. Cabin 5 was painted bright red. Whoever had done it did not know what they were doing. The paint looked like it had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire and a stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway. It's eyes seemed to follow me wherever I went. Loud rock music played from large speakers inside, where a bunch of cruel-looking kids argued and wrestled. A girl maybe thirteen or fourteen zeroed in on me, giving me an evil sneer. I looked away and decided to try and steer clear of her.

Chiron and I walked in silence for a little while. Finally, I said,"We haven't seen any other centaurs."

He nodded. "My kinsmen are quite, er, wild. You may encounter them in the wilderness or at major sporting events. But they won't be here."

"You said your name is Chiron. Are you really..."

"The Chiron we discussed in class? Trainer of Hercules and such? Why, yes. Yes I am."

I swallowed hard. "But, then , shouldn't you be dead?"

He pondered this question. "Well, I'm not sure about should. I can't be dead. Long long ago, the gods granted my wish. I wished to train heroes forever, or as long as they needed me."

I thought about being a teacher forever. Yuck.

"Does it ever get boring?"

"No," he replied. "Horribly depressing, but not ever boring."

He gazed around the commons area, as if searching for something he'd lost. Chiron frowned and stared down at his watch. "She's late," he mumbled, then turned to me. "You'll have to wait here for Alex. She should be here any minute. I have an archery lesson at noon. Just don't touch anything and don't wander off." He studied me, like I was a bad dog who needed looking after, then galloped down the hill.

I walked around the grass, gazing at statues and gardens, until I got around to Cabin number 11. It was different than all the others. It was, well, normal.

Number 11 looked like any regular old summer camp cabin, with emphasis on old. The brown paint was peeling and the door looked like it might fall off it's hinges at any moment. Over the doorway was one of those doctors symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. A caduceus. Inside, the building was packed with people, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread out all over the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center. Some of the kids caught me peering in the door, and I quickly looked away.

I turned around to leave and smacked straight into someone. We both fell backwards, scattering the contents of their tin bucket everywhere. Rubbing my head, I stood up, and there was Alex, lying on the ground.

"Oh," I said. Stupid. "I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going." I reached my hand out to her. She took it and I pulled her to her feet.

"Thanks," she said, giving me a smile. Alex looked at the mess on the ground. Fat, red apples were strewn across the grass. She bent down to pick them up. I sat down next to her.

"I'm really sorry about that," I told her.

"No, no. It's all right."

I nodded and plopped a fruit back into the bucket. "What are all these for?" I asked. She smiled at me.

"For the horses. Mandy, one of the younger kids, she likes to feed them. But she's to scared to go alone," she said.

"That's nice of you." She shrugged.

The white wolf ran up to us, a big red one in its mouth. It dropped it daintily into the bucket, then looked up at Alex, waiting for its reward. She laughed and tossed it a treat from her pocket.

"This is Winnie," she said.

"Hi." I gave her a little scratch behind her ears, and she licked my hand.

Alex got up, brushing the dirt off her jeans. I noticed something sparkle as she did.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing to the necklace. She seemed not to hear me, and strode into cabin eleven. I followed.

It wasn't much on the inside either. The paint was peeling and there were little signs and posters on the walls. All the kids looked up when we walked in. They all nodded to Alex respectfully.

"Percy Jackson," she said. "Welcome to Cabin 11."

"Regular or Undetermined?" somebody asked. I wasn't sure what to say, then I realized he wasn't asking me.

"Undetermined," Alex told him. Everyone groaned and went back to talking or playing board games or polishing weapons.

One of the guys came forward. He was a little older than the rest, maybe about nineteen. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

"Now, now, campers. C'mon. This is what we're here for," the guy said. He grinned at me. "Welcome, Percy. That spot over there is for you." He pointed to a patch on the floor.

"This is Luke," Alex said. "He's your counselor for now."

"For now?" I asked. Luke nodded.

"You're undetermined. You're here, because, well, they don't know where to put you. We take in all newcomers, all visitors. Hermes is the god of travelers, after all."

I stared down at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. There was nothing I could mark it with. Only the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves. I eyed the campers warily.

"How long will I be here?" I asked.

"Until you're determined." Luke said.

"How long will that take?" Everyone laughed.

"Come on," Alex said, jerking her head towards the door. "I'll show you the volleyball court."

"But I've already seen it."

"Come on!" She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the snickers of cabin eleven behind me.

When we were a few feet away, Alex said, "You okay?" My head was spinning. I had so many questions, so many things I needed to say, but didn't know how. I thought I might faint.

"Oh yeah. Great. Everything's just fine and dandy. No!" I snapped. She flinched, and I felt a little guilty, but I was too mad and confused and just... Aargh! to say anything. "Look, if that thing last night really was the Minotaur, then-" She cut me off.

"Wait, nobody knows about that, right? About me being there?"

I faltered in my rant, and stared at her.

"Who else knows?" Alex demanded.

I stuttered, "W-well..."

"Percy!"

"N-no one. No one," I finally answered. She seemed to relax, but just a bit.

"I swear, Jackson, if you ever breathe a word about that, I will kick you half-way to Sunday. Understood?" I nodded quickly. We stood there in silence for a little while, just listening to the wind rustle through the trees, before she broke the silence.

"So, any questions?" Any questions? Please. I was overflowing with questions.

"The Minotaur, was that real?"

She stared at me, thoughtfully. "Of course. Why?"

"Because didn't he die, like a gajillion years ago? In the labyrinth?" She seemed to realize where this was heading.

"Oh. Well, that's hard to explain," she said. "Monsters, they don't have souls like you do-"

"And you."

"R-right." She wouldn't look at me. "You can send them away for a while, even a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they'll eventually re-form and come back."

I let that sink in. I remembered Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-" I let that question hang in the air.

Alex nodded. "The Fury? Your math teacher? Yeah. She's still out there. You just made her super mad."

"How do you know about Mrs. Dodds?"

She shrugged. "You talk in your sleep."

"Whats a Fury? They're Hades torturers right?"

She smirked at me, her bright silver eyes sparkling. "You're such a child in all this," Alex said.

"Uh, thanks?"

She laughed. "You're lucky. Ignorance is bliss." She seemed to drift off in thought.

"So, the Fury?" I asked, and she snapped back to reality.

"What? Oh yeah," she sat down on a rock, setting her tin pail down next to her. She picked up a stick and started drawing lines in the dirt, like a battle plan. "We shouldn't call them by name, even here. We're supposed to call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all. But they don't scare me."

I plopped down next to her. "Why is everybody so crowded together in cabin eleven, anyway? Why can't we use those empty cabins over there?" I jabbed my thumb in the direction of the first few cabins and Alex laughed.

"You can't just choose a cabin, Percy. That would be ridiculous. It depends on who your parents, er, parent is." She stared at me, as if waiting for the lightbulb inside my head to turn on.

"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said, my voice cracking a little. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. Well, she used to." Her smile dropped.

"I-I'm really sorry about your mom, Percy. There was nothing I could do," she said, softly. "But what about your dad?"

"Dead."

Alex sighed. She'd clearly had this conversation before. "He's not dead."

"What? Do you know him?"

"Of course not."

"Then how can you say-"

"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't like us."

I stood up off the rock, and turned to give her an evil stare. I got one in return. "You don't know anything about me," I said accusingly.

"No?" She raised an eyebrow and got up too. She was a little shorter than me but she straightened up to my height. "I bet you moved around a whole lot from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of most of them."

My eyes widened. How could she-?

"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD too."

I swallowed hard. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Taken together, it's pretty much a sure sign. Your dyslexic? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD? You're impulsive, can't sit still. Thats your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they really are."

"You sound like...you went through the same thing?"

Alex nodded. "Pretty much everyone did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."

I thought about pointing out that I had her help, but remembering her threat about Sunday, decided not to.

"That food and drink we fed to you to make you better. It would've killed a regular kid. Would've turned you blood to fire and your bones to sand. Boom. Dead. You've got to be a half-blood."

A half-blood. My head was spinning, with so many questions I didn't know where to start.

Then a husky voice yelled," Well! A newbie!"

We both jumped. That big girl from the ugly red cabin stomped towards us. She had 3 other kids with her, all big and ugly and mean looking, all wearing camo jackets and smug smiles.

"Clarisse," Alex spat. "Go polish your sword or something and leave us alone."

"Yeah, okay," Clarisse sneered. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."

"Erres es korakas!" Alex said, which I somehow understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!'. Though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. "You don't stand a chance. I'm going to wipe your ugly face in the-"

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse hissed. The look on her face suggested she was more wary of this skinny little girl than she let on. She tilted her head to look at me. "Who's this little runt?"

"None of your-"

"Percy Jackson," I answered. Winnie padded over and, noticing the big girls, leaned back on her haunches and growled.

"Shut up, dog," Clarisse muttered. "Clarisse La Rue, Daughter of Ares."

I raised an eyebrow. "Like, the war god?"

"Got a problem with that, punk?"

"Not at all," I smirked. "Explains the bad smell." Alex snickered.

Clarisse and her buddies sent me death glares. "We've got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy," she growled.

"Percy."

"Whatever. Let's go."

Alex jumped in. "Clarisse, don't even-"

"And what are you going to do about it, Clark?"

It was the first time I'd heard her last name, and she flinched at the sound of it. She reached for something at her hip, but whatever it was, it wasn't there. Clarisse smirked. As a last resort, Alex did the only thing left to do. She picked up her tin bucket and dumped the contents on Clarisse's head. She stepped back and folded her arms over her chest, wearing a satisfactory smile. I thought the bigger girl was going to pound her, but she just sighed angrily like this was a daily thing.

"Come on, Prissy," Clarisse muttered.

"It's Percy!"

"I DON'T CARE!" She grabbed me by the hood of my sweatshirt and dragged me towards a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom. Alex followed behind, hanging her head like she had failed to save me from a horrible fate.

I swung my fists and kicked her in the legs, but Clarisse had an iron grip. She shoved me into the girl's bathroom. Great. Now, they're going to find me half-drowning in the _girls_ bathroom, of all places. Clarisse and her ugly friends were all laughing and snorting. "Yeah right," Clarisse said, as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Like he's 'Big Three' material. Poor Minotaur probably died of laughter." She called to Alex, who stood in the corner, watching through her fingers. "Hey, Clark! Looks like you got this one _totally_ wrong. Must've had a harder hit to the head than you thought."

Alex's eyes flashed, as she launched herself at Clarisse, but was held back by Winnie biting onto the bottom of her jeans.

Clarisse pushed me to my knees, and bent me over the bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and smelly water and, well, the stuff that goes in a toilet. I strained to keep my head up. I stared down into the disgusting water and thought, I will not go into that. I won't.

Then something happened, something I can't quite explain. I felt a tug in my gut, and I heard a deep rumbling in the pipes. Water shot out of the toilet and made an arch right over my head.

The next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me. I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again. My eyes widened as the stream of water hit her straight in the face so hard it pushed her onto her butt. It stayed on her no matter where she moved, forcing her backward into the wall. Her friends moved forward to help her and the other toilets exploded. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camo girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away. I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off immediately.

The entire bathroom was flooded. Alex hadn't been spared. She was soaked from head to toe, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was just standing there, staring at me.

I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have a drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.

I slowly stood up, my legs shaking. I said, "I-I don't know h-how..."

She started shaking. No. She was laughing. Her laugh was... sweet. It was contagious, so I couldn't help but laugh along. Pretty soon, I was clutching my stomach, and Alex had to lean on to the sink to keep from falling over.

We both took deep breaths to calm down, and went over to the door. Clarisse and her buddies were sprawled in the mud, and some of the other campers had gathered around to point and laugh.

Clarisse looked awful. Her brown hair was flattened against her face and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of pure hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are so dead."

"You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth," I said. Alex snickered behind me.

The camouflage girls had to hold Clarisse back. They dragged her off toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.

I turned back to Alex. She was staring at me thoughtfully, a faint smile on her lips, lost in her own little world.

"What?" I asked. "What are you thinking?" The grin widened.

"I'm thinking," she said. "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."


	4. Memo

Hey guys! I just wanted you to know that I haven't given up on this story. I'm just not going to be posting for a while. I have a lot going on and I don't have as much time to write as I did before. I will continue this story and maybe a new Doctor Who one will be showing up. Thanks a lot guys!

-Miya


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